PSD wins national ballot with 221 parliament seats
Romania’s leftist Social Democrat Party (PSD) has won the greater part of parliament seats, paving the way for the country to choose a new prime minister.
Final results published by the Central Electoral Bureau on Thursday showed the PSD gained a combined 221 deputies and senators in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
The Chamber of Deputies is comprised of 330 members and the Senate of 136.
Together with their traditional ally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group, the PSD has a definite majority of 250 seats out of the two houses' 465 seats, which means they are liable to replace Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos with a premier of their own choice.
The center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) came second with over 20 percent of the votes, and the Save Romania Union was third with 9.3 percent of the votes.
Earlier this week, PSD Chairman Liviu Dragnea had hailed the results, saying he was “quite satisfied” with the outcome.
“There should be no doubt who won the elections. Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians,” he said.
Earlier this year, the PSD chairman had received a suspended two-year prison term for voter fraud in a 2012 national referendum on the impeachment of the then-president, Traian Basescu.
Dragnea had allegedly used his influence to get people to vote against Basescu.
Basescu, however, remained in office after the referendum was announced invalid due to the low turnout.
Mass street protests hit the country last year after a deadly fire at a nightclub which killed 64 people in October 2015.
The incident was blamed on corrupt officials who allegedly failed to uphold safety regulations.
Romania, which joined the European Union 10 years ago, is one of the poorest countries in the eurozone.
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